11.23

It's Sunday...and Sunday's are always busy...and relaxing in the Brown household. We're at church by 9am to set up for Nursery. That means that everyone, including myself, needs to be up and around by 7:45ish to be on time....ugh. Poor Jason has to drag be out of bed! I hate mornings. After church it's lunch and off to naps for the boys. Today, that included Jason. So I had two whole hours of peace to do whatever I wanted. I should have been doing laundry, but instead, I was lusting after this....

We went to the Faith's annual stewardship banquet tonight. It our church's wrap up of stewardship month. The theme was gratefulness for God's provision. Our church has been blessed tremendously this year with the community center and Vison of Hope but we have also experience many blessing in our own family. Thank you all for helping us along the way! It reminds me so much of where I started and where I am today. God has been so good!! The speaker tonight talked about how important it is for us to show appreciation to not only God, but also to others. I see how I fail so miserably at that. I know how special a hand written note means to me, and yet, I often fail to recognize someone else generosity.

Will you try to thank someone this week that has helped you in some small way?? I will.

And I leave you with these,

My toothless wonder:Mini-me

11.22

Three days running...whoohoo! Try not to get too excited :)

We were pretty lazy most of the morning. Jason helped set up Living Nativity at church this morning. If you haven't ever been with us, you should come this year! It's a reenactment of the bible, mainly focusing on Christ and His reason for coming to earth. I think we have about 15 or so sets around the church campus and you can either walk thru or drive. There are live actors at each set to help tell the story and make it 'real' It takes hundreds of volunteers to pull it off. Definitely worth it, though! The kids always love the live animals. Plus, it's free! This year it's Dec. 12-14 and Dec. 19-21. Plan a trip, will ya?

I finished this collage and they picked it up today. It is a Christmas gift for her mother-in-law who loves Purdue. I also wrapped up a business card design that I am working on.

Gavin attended a b-day party for a friend. Don't you remember how cool and exciting going to a friend's b-day party was? He was so excited ALL morning!

We were out doing errands this afternoon and the kids were being pistols. So, we stopped at our favorite local park...a really quiet one even in the summer...and made the kids get out and spend some energy. It was like 20 out there, but they were so excited! Too bad we stayed in the car and watched :) It lasted less than 10 minutes, but really made a difference. They were better when we went to CVS and stocked up on batteries. They had a great deal going on, but the lady was clearly annoyed. Now I have enough batteries to last us through Christmas ;)

Jason was so kind to go to the grocery store tonight for me. I secretly think he wanted to get away from the madness! I appreciate it anyways. Nolan has been really fussy lately. He gets so mad and is starting to throw little tantrums. I think he might be cutting his molars, but usually not even Tylenol helps. Poor guy. Pray that it's just a teething issue and we're not overlooking something else.

11.21

I took pics this morning for a girlfriend. Her kids are the cutest. Next, I am working on her first birthday announcements.

I stole one of Cam while I was at it :)

Our bible study meets tonight and we decided to have dinner together. So after I pick up Gavin from school, it's off to Meijer for some fixins'. The kids don't care...they get free cheese as their reward. It a small form of bribery.

Jason if off for the next 9 days...hopefully we can get our spare room put back together so I can reclaim my hallway and laundry area.

We have offically taken over the nursery at Faith and with the new 8 am service starting up on the 1st of January, we have some serious recruitment issues. I have a long list of calls that need to be made in the coming days...

Now, I am off to TRY to catch up on laundry before the weekend.

A post a day?

I know that I don't post as often as I should....so for the rest of the year....gasp!...I am going to try to post one thing a day. This might get really boring, but at least you'll know what I have been up to when you call me for the 100th time and I still don't call ya back :)

11.20

I had the pleasure of hosting a play group for some mommy friends this morning. 8 mommies and 24 kiddos! I think it's so much fun to have everyone over for lunch and playtime.

Nolan and Cameron took super long naps (no suprise) so I got lots of emails caught up from the last few weeks of scarce internet connectivity. It's all good now!

I have picked up some 'freelance' work designing a full page brochure and business cards for a friend. I have also begun christmas card designing.

Gavin lost his 3rd tooth in about a week this afternoon. His response, "tic tack toe, three in a row" The tooth fairy is about to go broke if he keeps this up.

See ya tomorrow!

Happy Halloween!

Check this out!

Calling all mom's of girls....check this out!

If you win, I take your daughter's pic for free! Now I really do wish I owned a girl.....hehe.

Yes, I am still alive and NO I don't just blog about political stuff anymore. Nolan had surgery last week and we are still on the mend. I will update soon...just as soon as I get somethings on my to-do-list done, and read this book being shoved in my face :)

Obama test?

Confused about where you stand come November...or what a politician stands for....check this out here:

THEY SUCK

The cubs that is. I don't think I can make it though another season of disappointment....

it's been a bit gloomy around here lately.

Article of interest

I came across this article...published in 1999. Interesting that the future was fortold.

Check it out here.

Happening....

If you happen to walk past our house and hear strange noises coming from inside. Like crackly, loud, statically noises....

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You know the ones if you happen to walk by anytime in the last...oh....6 months or so......

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It's AM radio.....

THE CUBS ARE IN THE PLAYOFFS!!!

It's our year...right?

Looking forward..

We've had a busy week! I can't believe it already Friday. Nolan had an eye appt this morning for his uncooperative clogged tear duct. Doc wasn't as helpful as I was hoping...so now we wait some more....

We scored tickets to this weekend's Purdue vs. ND football game. We are so excited. It'll be nice to be away from the kids awhile and visit with some friends too!

On another exciting note...we finally bought a new ring. Shocking, I know. It has only been since November that I lost my original diamond. I was worth the wait.

Check back early next week and maybe I'll have pics from this weekend.

Happy belated party Nolan

Bad mommy just realized she never shared Nolan's b-day party pics. Bad mommy almost didn't even have a b-day party for Nolan. I mean, does a one year old even need a party? The good mommy in me, however, thought better of it, and started planning. And then...things changed. We ended up going up north to celebrate, but we had two parties, which is really twice as fun! It was nice to visit with everyone and eat cake..twice actually. Thanks to all who helped out!

Here is Nolan's special birthday banner I made. It took forever to make but it was worth it. All I have to switch is the pics and it's ?? birthday banner! Don't you want one now too?

Nolan on his actual birthday. The boys helped make the cake. Nolan didn't really know what to think of all the fuss...the singing, the candles, the cake.

Party #1..see how excited Nolan is:

Living the good life for sure. All tuckered out.Party #2: by this point he thinks we've gone mad.

I came across this and felt that it was good enough to share. Before I was a christian I never really got it. I personally know that people tend to put off seeking God because they think that accepting Him will make their live inconvenient (having to go to Church, giving up sinful behavior, etc...) but in reality accepting Christ makes things so much easier.

http://asoftplacetoland-kimba.blogspot.com/2008/09/from-my-heart.html

Don't put off the decision to do so....not deciding is still deciding.

Photocards

Holy crap. I just posted my first ad on craigslist for my cards...kinda scary...kinda exciting!

We'll see if anyone bits....

If anyone knows me, they now that I am not a morning person. So when my phone rang shortly after 8:45 am one beautiful September morning I was a little annoyed. I still has 15 minutes to sleep before I had to get up to make it to my 10:00 am job where I was a teller at a local bank.

It was my mom and see seemed a little panicky.

"Turn on the TV and see this"

I watched as the second plane hit on live TV. I couldn't even begin to understand the gravity of what was going on.

Jason, just my boyfriend at the time, was at Purdue. All phone lines where busy. You could not get through. I guess everyone was checking on their loved ones...just in case.

As I drove to work and listened intently to the events unfolding...I remember being scared that planes were going to begin falling out of the sky.

By the time I arrived at work, we had a TV set up in the lobby and watched as things started to become clear that this was not an accident. We watched the plane hit the pentagon. The towers fall. United 93. I will never forget the disparity. The sadness.

There were very few customers that day. But alot of calls. Alot of reassuring and alot of older people wanting large sums of money. I think some people feared that the whole economy was on the verge of collapse. Especially those who lived during the stock market crash.

I made my best friend and her boyfriend spend the night at my apartment. So I wouldn't have to be alone. CNN was on all night. I would drift off and wake up to images that will forever be with me. People who survived, firefighters, police. Heroes.

My life was forever changed that day. Continued to be changed because of that day. The war on terror...the Iraqi war...all lead back to it.

When me and Jason first meet and I found out he was in the reserves, I asked him if he was scared to go to war. "Who's gonna go to war with the US" he said. That was 2000. What a difference a year makes.

I wasn't a Christian then. I am sure that I would have handled that day different if I had been. I do remember that all the sudden God becoming center stage in America. In God We Trust was all the sudden ok again. I didn't see God in that day. I saw hate and anger. Now, I see his mercy, his love.

The patriotism, the coming together as a nation was amazing. People sacrificed for each other. People wanted to fight and win over terrorism. No politics, no party lines. People were courteous and nice. It's sad that it takes a national tragedy to show love to your neighbor.

I will never forget and I am sure you won't either. So many things will never be the same.

I pray for those left behind and those who's lives have been forever affected. May God give them peace in their pain.

Weekend in Ohio

We're back from the much anticipated "get-away"...We headed to Cincy last weekend to meet up with Jason's brother/wife/son and dad. It's been almost 2 years since Jason and Josh have seen each other! Josh recently got out of the military and has since moved to Alabama. I have never been there, but now we have a great excuse to go!

We planned a Friday night Cubs vs. Reds game and guess what? It rained! Bummer cause having four kids at the ballpark is not enough stress. They ended up losing. Double bummer.

With Nolan, it was either this:Or this:

On Saturday, we headed to the Creation Museum. If you thought about going....go. It's not the greatest thing to take the kiddo along with, lots of reading and very few 'hands-on' exhibits. We are definitely going back...sans kids. Love this pic I got in the botanical gardens. Next time, I am planning on taking more time to shoot out there.We stayed Saturday night too and ended up checking out one of the local churchs on Sunday. It was...well, it was uninspiring and almost wishy-washy. Too bad too. The theme was serving one another. Hard to imagine messing that one up??

What. What's this. More Cubs pics??? Have you had enough all ready?

See that...we are at the game again on Sunday. Believe me, it wasn't my idea. They lost too. Again. Maybe I did get something out of that service earlier in the day...selflessness, caring more about others happy vs. self...j/k. I ended up working out ok. We got the tickets cheaper than the ones we bought from the Reds a few weeks earlier. Gotta love those scalpers. The weather was gorgeous and there isn't really anything in life that a little cotton candy can't fix. There was a silver lining. After the game, the kids were allowed on the field to run the bases. Well, kids as in anyone with kids with them could run the bases. The boys were excited. How many times do you get to go onto a Major League field?

See this?? A pic with me in it. Too bad each kid has the dumbest expression...guess I can't win them all.

Happy birthday Nolan

It's hard to believe that just one year ago, we didn't know what you would bring into our family...Then your here, and we can't imagine what life was without you!

It's been months of growth, teaching, learning, milestones.

12 glorious months of smiles, tears, and giggles

Many new adjustments.

365 days of joy, worry and wonder.

I love you more than you know.

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY NOLAN!!!!!!!!!

I can't believe my little baby is one!

Who says laundry has to be boring??

Here is what we did today:

Before....

After....

We still have to paint the trim white and take down the rest of the track from the closet doors. I used to like the fact that I was able to hid things in there and just shut the doors. But since out front loaders are too deep, we had to take the doors off. This was the solution we can up with. What do you think??

I love black cabinets. Now it off to the boys bathroom...I'm so painting the oak in there black after seeing how great these look (gasp!) Maybe I'll do some fun stripes on the wall too!